Fire engines arrive at the crash site of a passenger plane near the village of Hrabove, Ukraine, as the sun sets Thursday, July 17, 2014. Ukraine said a passenger plane carrying 295 people was shot down Thursday as it flew over the country, and both the government and the pro-Russia separatists fighting in the region denied any responsibility for downing the plane. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky)Source: AP

THEY were exuberant.

“That was a blast – look at the smoke,” laughed the rebels responsible for shooting down MH17 over Ukraine yesterday.

In one stroke, they killed almost 300 people and transported their war to half a world away into the homes of the 28 Australian passengers.

At the same time as the pro-Russian rebels were celebrating, Israel launched a ground attack into Gaza and an Australian suicide bomber killed three people in Baghdad.

Back home and a West African refugee remembers letting go of her trembling father’s hand as she was kidnapped by rebels in Sierra Leone.

The world is at war and Australians are increasingly being caught up in the conflicts.

Flying from Holland to Malaysia should not end suddenly with a missile over a war zone in the Crimea. But it did.

Across the globe yesterday, people were shaking their heads and wondering if the world had gone mad.

Wars push people from their homes. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees says there are 51 million refugees worldwide – more than at any time since World War II.

It gets worse. Combatants no longer play by the rules.

The Red Cross emblem is one of the world’s most recognised symbols, designed to protect medical staff in battle.

Over 18 months there have been more than 1000 incidents in which medical professionals have been kidnapped, killed or told what to do in operations.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop says the world is “extremely volatile at present”, reflected in a record number of Australians needing assistance from Australia’s 90 overseas missions.

But Bishop believes Australia, which hosts the G20 this year, can make a difference.

“Australia really is a significant contributor to regional as well as global peace and prosperity,” she says.

“We have significant global interests. I believe we have used our position on the UN Security Council to assist in drafting resolutions on Syria, Israel and Gaza, Afghanistan and easing tensions in Ukraine.”

Australia is one of the top 10 foreign aid donors and “has ­resettled the second highest number of refugees per capita after Norway”.

Of the 51 million refugees worldwide, many are in the Middle East where the war in Syria has displaced thousands.

Lowy Institute Middle East expert Rodger Shanahan says the partial withdrawal of the US has created a vacuum that others are trying to fill.

“It is a regional problem and the people leading these countries are small-minded, short-term leaders who are incapable of fixing things,” he says.

“The US is not willing to go and spend more blood and treasure because military muscle cannot fix things.”

Andrew Carr, of the ANU Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, says the biggest change is the post-Cold War order.

“It seems to be breaking down,’’ he says.

“The US was on top and decided the rules of the road but now countries are doubting the capability of the US to pull countries into line.”

He warns of an arms race starting on Australia’s doorstep.

“China is the leader but other countries are building up their weapons in response, particularly Japan and South Korea,” he says.

“It is a little bit alarming. There are parallels with how Germany and the UK acted before the First World War.”

China has begun flexing its muscles in the region. It has fenced off the Scarborough Shoal fishery off the Philippine coast and is blockading a small number of Philippine marines defending a dot of land called the Second Thomas Shoal.

But Mr Carr is most alarmed at the dispute over the Japanese-controlled Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea.

UNHCR national director Naomi Steer believes the world is at a tipping point.

“The reality is that we are facing many crises in a way that we haven’t since the end of World War II,” she says.